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The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing data from 14 big booze brands and plans to issue new recommendations this summer to help alcohol companies advertise more effectively online. The yearlong study should help brands find ways to market their products while shielding underage Web users from inappropriate marketing content. "We're doing a deep dive on how they're using the Internet and social media. ... We're focusing on underage exposure," says FTC lawyer Janet Evans.

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The Federal Trade Commission's latest social media guidelines send a clear message that regulators won't tolerate shenanigans from the expanding industry, writes Andy Sernovitz. If you can't figure out ways to make disclosures clear and obvious, or to explain the nature of brand-endorser relationships, then you're probably already crossing a line, Sernovitz writes. "These are good signs you shouldn't do it at all. The FTC says if you can't figure out how to do it legally, you shouldn't be doing it," he writes.

Google's promotion of its own products and services in users' search results is fair game, the Federal Trade Commission ruled this week. The ruling was seen as a victory for Google, but does include provisions requiring Google to make its AdWords campaigns easier to transfer to rival platforms, and barring Google from scraping content from commercial sites such as Yelp. That will lead to a "fairer playing field in Internet search and search advertising," says FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

Microsoft's Bing search engine is exploiting the recent Federal Trade Commission civil penalty against Google with an online campaign enticing users of Apple's Safari browser to start using Microsoft's search engine. Ads from the Bing brand included head-to-head comparisons with search giant Google and suggested that users make Bing their home page. "Earlier this year, we showed a more open approach to social search, where Google favors only its own G+ information. Last week, we launched the Bing challenge, to show customers the quality of Bing's Web search results had surpassed Google's," said Stefan Weitz, senior director at Bing.

A coalition of groups interested in children's welfare, privacy rights and other causes is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate several companies' online refer-a-friend efforts for potential violations of rules governing online outreach to children. Branded sites from companies such as McDonald's, General Mills, Viacom and Turner Broadcasting are accused of improperly collecting children's e-mail addresses by enlisting minors in viral marketing campaigns. "Companies are doing an end run around a law put in place to protect children's privacy," said Laura Moy of the Center for Digital Democracy.

The FTC has "grave concern" that the use of college sports team colors in a marketing effort for Anheuser-Busch InBev brand Bud Light will lead to underage and binge drinking, according to Janet Evans, a senior attorney at the agency who keeps an eye on alcohol marketing. More than two dozen schools have requested Anheuser-Busch not sell the cans in the vicinity of their campuses, according to this article.